GOP breaks up transportation bill

House Republicans are splitting up their mammoth transportation and energy bill in an effort to overcome rising GOP and conservative think tank discontent with the measure.

Since the package has run into reluctant Republican lawmakers and a unified Democratic front, leaders decided to let members vote separately on the transportation, energy and pension provisions that would later be recombined into a single bill.

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The five-year, $260 billion proposal has drawn friendly fire for a variety of reasons: Conservatives have challenged the price tag and some of the funding mechanisms, while moderate Republicans don’t like the idea of including oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Nearly 300 amendments were filed to the Rules Committee.

The Club for Growth has called on lawmakers to oppose the measure. A spokesman for Heritage Action for America says splitting up the bill doesn’t change the group’s opposition.

House Speaker John Boehner also can’t count on any Democratic votes for the bill.

With floor time dwindling this week before a scheduled recess, as well as the pressing payroll tax talks, Boehner and Co. made the call Tuesday morning to split up the transportation bill.

“Republicans pledged to pass bills in a more transparent manner and reverse the era of quickly moving massive bills across the floor without proper examination,” Boehner and Rules Committee Chairman David Drier said in a statement. “Accordingly, the energy/infrastructure jobs plan will be considered on the floor in the same manner in which it was written and voted upon in committee — in separate pieces, allowing each major component of the plan to be debated and amended more openly, rather than as a single ‘comprehensive’ bill with limited debate and limited opportunity for amendment. “